Set up the call path, not just the app.
A reliable AI receptionist depends on your phone provider, voicemail, hours, transfer destinations, and failure plan working together. Use this guide before activating forwarding.
Contact us
Email colton@fluidbloommedia.org. Include your business name, the last four digits of the affected number, the approximate call time and timezone, and what you expected to happen. Do not email payment card details, passwords, medical records, or highly sensitive caller content.
Choose one routing model
1. Zappy answers all forwarded calls
Your established public business number forwards unconditionally to a private Zappy number. This is usually the simplest option when you want consistent 24/7 answering. Human transfers should go to a separate direct or ring-group number that does not forward back to Zappy.
2. Staff first, then Zappy
Your carrier or phone system forwards calls to Zappy only when your staff is busy, does not answer, or is unavailable. This can work well, but the existing voicemail timer must not answer before forwarding. Busy, no-answer, unreachable, and after-hours rules may be separate.
3. After-hours only
Your phone system schedules forwarding outside staff hours. This normally requires a hosted VoIP or PBX schedule; a mobile phone's basic forwarding setting may not support it. Zappy still needs an explicit after-hours collect, transfer, emergency, and callback policy.
4. Publish the Zappy number
You use the assigned Zappy number as the public number on your website, Google Business Profile, ads, and directories. Confirm ownership, locality, billing, and the written port-out/continuity procedure before publishing it.
Call forwarding is provider-specific
First identify whether the public number is a mobile carrier line, traditional landline, cable voice line, Google Voice number, hosted VoIP service, PBX, or call center. Find the account administrator and existing voicemail/no-answer timer. Then use the provider's current instructions or contact the provider. Do not assume an iPhone switch or a generic star code applies to every line.
- Mobile carrier: confirm unconditional, busy, no-answer, and unreachable forwarding support with the carrier. Apple's iPhone setting generally controls unconditional forwarding only where the carrier supports it.
- Landline or cable voice: obtain the provider's activation and cancellation codes and verify whether caller ID is preserved.
- Google Voice: confirm the exact account type and available call-handling rules. Contact-based custom forwarding is not the same as a universal office-hours schedule.
- Hosted VoIP or PBX: have the administrator configure schedules, ring groups, overflow, holidays, caller-ID preservation, and failover in that system.
Set four schedules separately
| Schedule | Meaning | What it should control |
|---|---|---|
| Published business hours | Hours shown to customers on Google and your website. | What the receptionist says about when the business is open. |
| AI answering coverage | When Zappy may answer the phone. | Carrier or phone-system routing. |
| Human transfer hours | When staff or on-call people may be rung. | Transfer destinations and no-answer fallback. |
| Booking availability | Times a service can actually be scheduled. | Calendar search and appointment creation. |
Do not use published hours as a shortcut for transfer hours, and do not assume calendar availability controls call routing.
Define after-hours behavior
Choose what Zappy may do when it is answering but human transfer hours are closed:
- Collect only the approved details and state an approved callback window.
- For precisely defined urgent situations, try a verified on-call destination.
- If nobody answers, return to the caller, explain the safe next step, and still create the lead.
- For immediate danger, life-threatening symptoms, fire, crime in progress, gas odor, exposed energized wiring, or a similar emergency, direct the caller to the appropriate emergency service. Zappy cannot diagnose, dispatch emergency help, or promise an arrival time.
Google Business Profile
- If you keep your established number and forward it to Zappy: you normally do not need to change the phone number on Google. Forwarding occurs behind the same public number.
- If the Zappy number becomes public: deliberately update Google, your website, ads, social profiles, directories, and printed materials. Prefer a location-specific number under the business's direct control. Google may review the change or require reverification.
- If you are testing: do not change the Google primary number just to run a forwarding test.
Activation test checklist
- Confirm the business controls its public number, Zappy number, and private transfer destination.
- Verify the public number and transfer destination are different and cannot loop.
- Place a normal open-hours call and verify pickup time, caller ID, greeting, accurate facts, lead creation, notification, and minute usage.
- Place an after-hours call and verify the configured collect, escalation, and callback language.
- Test busy, no-answer, unreachable, existing voicemail, human transfer, transfer no-answer, caller hang-up, and maximum-call behavior.
- Temporarily pause or undo forwarding, place another call, and confirm the restoration path works.
A web live test is useful for reviewing the greeting and approved knowledge, and it uses included plan minutes once the account is paid. It does not prove that carrier forwarding, PSTN pickup, caller ID, transfers, voicemail, lead delivery, or outage fallback works.
Account and data requests
Use the in-app account controls when available, or follow the account-deletion instructions. You can also contact support for access, correction, export, or deletion help.